People saying things like "A question on Herman's Hermits should be as gettable as a question on Michelle Branch" are not addressing the problem. It's possible for undergraduate quiz bowlers to know a whole lot about old movies, old movies, and sports history, because it's easy to buy music from before we were born, it's easy to rent movies from before we were born (at least the best ones), and if you're a sports fan you might know a lot about Ara Parseghian or Chuck Klein or Bob Cousy. The questions that annoy me and Matt Weiner are the ones about things that we literally could not possibly have experienced, and literally could not have any knowledge of unless we read a book about it. The classic example of this is the bonus on Max Headroom characters. Upon getting that one I turned to my teammates, said "Does anyone know what Max Headroom is?" and then said "Pass". If it was a tossup on Max Headroom, it would be okay, because it's possible to know what Max Headroom IS (I do because it was mentioned in a book of essays by Kurt Loder that I read). But Max Headroom isn't on TV in reruns; it's not available on video; it was on TV for one year when the oldest member of Pitt's team was six. The only way we could do anything with this question would be if for some reason one of us found a book and memorized facts about a TV show that we could never possibly see. Questions about "Get Smart" aren't bad, but questions about "Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb" are. Although someone might remember this movie and its publicity campaign, it's not, well, part of pop culture anymore. The only way I could know about it would be if (a) I bought it for $3 in the bargain bin at Sam Goody's, amazed that such a thing existed, or (b) I went to imdb.com intending to write a question about Don Adams. A question about "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" is okay, because I've actually seen that movie, because it's possible to rent it. Using parallel structure and replacing "Don Adams" with Rene Auberjonois, it's not okay to write a question on "Benson", unless it's part of a bonus about Robert Guillaume or Jerry Seinfeld. Old TV is a bigger problem than old movies and music; basically anything that isn't available as entertainment NOW is a problem. These questions are supposed to be about things we know from existing amidst pop culture; we're not supposed to study for trash tournaments.
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